Without giving away too many details about the film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier has an absolutely massive effect on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie’s third act leaves things in an absolutely fascinating place that will have fans spending months theorizing about and imagining what will happen in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and beyond. Of course, balancing these kinds of big picture ideas while also telling thoughtful and important singular stories is something that Marvel Studios has had a great deal of experience with now, and it was this challenge that I recently had the chance to speak with company president Kevin Feige about at a recent press day for the upcoming blockbuster.

Fans of Marvel movies are likely very familiar with Feige at this point, as he has very much become the face of everything that is going on behind the scenes at the studio as is seen as one of the key masterminds behind every movie made in the cinematic universe. In addition to being the president of the division since 2007, he has also played an intimate role on every single one of its projects serving as a producer. He has gone on record saying that Marvel Studios has planned their future through 2021, and if he is talking, comic book movie fans should be listening.

In addition to talking about how Captain America: The Winter Soldier plays towards the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Feige also discussed in our interview exactly how future-building elements are woven into each one of their films and how it’s decided which ones will be given the extra responsibility of world-building. Watch our interview above to hear what he had to say!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be in theaters here in the U.S. on April 4th, but for now let’s take a quick look back at the films since The Avengers that have gotten us to this point: